This is a blogg* to share my eXcess; that which reached, touched, entertained or angered me, in general all that draws my interest and thereby transmutes my Xsistance.
Eclectic music, metaphysics, (pre)history, conspiracies against humanity, the environment.

May 4, 2016

RhoDeo 1618 Roots

Hello, party time in Leicester tonight, half of the town was watching 'the jester from lester' become snooker world champion, the other half watching Chelsea draw with Tottenham which meant the latter could no longer keep Leicester from the 5000-1 title. These kinda odds were given to Elvis or the Loch Ness monster turning up, in short it has been almost a miracle, did King Richard III intervene from beyond ? In the meantime this 330.000 souls city has taken 2 world titles today. (I reckon the Premier League has by far the biggest global impact making it's champions world champions.) Mark Selby won after surviving a tactical game in the semis and took it with him to the final, having hardly any fouls, he had Ding on the backfoot from the start, always in front 18-14 the final score. This came 30 minutes after Leicester FC title, what a day.

Today, one of Brazil's greatest jazz and ballad singers of the 1960s and '70s, a highly-regarded but tragic artist who was something like her country's version of Edith Piaf. She hosted a popular television show ("O Fino Do Fino") and used her fame to boost the careers of many of the best new Brazilian composers of the era. Before her untimely death at the age of thirty-six, she was widely regarded as Brazil's greatest living popular vocalist. She was noted for her vocalization, as well as for her personal interpretation and performances in shows... .....N'Joy

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Elis Regina was born in Porto Alegre, where she began her career as a singer at age 11 on a children's radio show, O Clube Do Guri on Rádio Farroupilha. In 1959, she was contracted by Rádio Gaúcha and in the next year she travelled to Rio de Janeiro where she recorded her first LP, Viva a Brotolândia (Long Live Teenage Land) and her second LP, "Poema", employing a number of popular musical styles of the era.

She won her first festival song contest in 1965 singing Arrastão (Pull The Trawling Net) by Edu Lobo and Vinícius de Moraes, which, when released as a single, made her the biggest selling Brazilian recording artist since Carmen Miranda. The second LP with Jair Rodrigues, Dois na Bossa, set a national sales record and became the first Brazilian LP to sell over one million copies. Arrastão by Elis also launched her career for a national audience, since that festival was broadcast via TV and radio. For the history of Brazilian music, the record represented the beginning of a new musical style that would be known as MPB (Música popular brasileira or Brazilian Popular Music), distinguished from the previous bossa nova and other preceding musical styles, although samba is very much at its core. Most of her entire 20 year recorded discography is still available.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, along with Gal Costa, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, Elis Regina helped to popularize the work of the tropicalismo (Tropicália) movement, recording songs by musicians such as Gilberto Gil. Her 1974 collaboration with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Elis & Tom, is often cited as one of the greatest bossa nova albums of all time, which also includes what many consider the all-time best Brazilian song, "Águas de Março". She also recorded songs by Milton Nascimento, João Bosco, Aldir Blanc, Chico Buarque, Guinga, Jorge Ben, Baden Powell, Caetano Veloso and Rita Lee. Her nicknames were "furacão" ("hurricane") and "pimentinha" ("little pepper"), opening a window on both her singing style and personality.

She sometimes criticized the Brazilian dictatorship which had persecuted and exiled many musicians of her generation. In a 1969 interview in Europe, she said that Brazil was being run by "gorillas". Her popularity kept her out of jail, but she was eventually compelled by the authorities to sing the Brazilian national anthem in a stadium show, drawing the ire of many Brazilian Leftists. She was later forgiven because they understood that, as both a mother and daughter, she had to protect her family from the dictatorship at any cost. Along with many other artists Elis was living each verse of Geraldo Vandré's political hymn: Yet they make of a flower their strongest refrain, And believe flowers to defeat guns. While her earlier records were mostly apolitical, from the mid-'70s on her music became more engaged, and she began to choose compositions and structure her conceptually complex live shows in ways as to criticize the military government, capitalism, racial and sexual injustice and other forms of inequality. Lyrics to songs recorded towards the end of her career carried overt socialist leanings, and in 1980, she joined the Workers' Party.

Her rendition of Jobim / Vinicius' song "Por Toda A Minha Vida" appeared on the soundtrack to the 2002 movie Hable con Ella (Talk to Her) directed by Pedro Almodóvar and her song "Roda" appeared on the soundtrack to the 2005 movie Be Cool.

Elis married twice and gave birth to three children. Her first marriage was to Ronaldo Bôscoli in 1967. She gave birth to a son, João Marcelo Bôscoli, in 1970. She later married her long-time collaborator, pianist/composer/arranger César Camargo Mariano, and had two more children with him: Pedro Camargo Mariano in 1975, and Maria Rita in 1977. The three children all later became musicians and/or producers. After many years of complete obscurity, Maria Rita became a national singing sensation after a lengthy marketing campaign, like her mother, winning three Latin Grammies for her debut eponymous CD. João Marcello Boscoli, owner of the Trama recording company, produced the first Elis Regina DVD allowing many of her fans to see her performing for the first time. The DVD was a recording of a 1973 Brazilian TV show featuring songs, Elis' running commentary introducing each song, and an interview. Pedro Camargo Mariano most recently sang with his father, the brilliant pianist and arranger César Camargo Mariano, on a Latin Grammy–nominated CD called "Piano & Voz" (Piano and Voice). More DVDs of Elis Regina performances have subsequently been released.

Elis Regina died at the age of 36 in 1982, from an accidental cocaine, alcohol, and temazepam interaction. More than 15,000 people, among friends, relatives and fans, held her wake at Teatro Bandeirantes, in São Paulo, with large groups of fans singing her songs. More than 100,000 people followed her funeral procession throughout São Paulo. She was buried in Cemitério do Morumbi.

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In 1975, Elis Regina opened her solo show, Falso Brilhante, where she launched the career of another new composer: Belchior. One year after she recorded the repertoire of the show on an LP; this is the CD reissue. The album opens with the two Belchior tunes made hits: "Como Nossos Pais" and "Velha Roupa Colorida," both being folk-influenced rock tunes, dealing with the post-hippie delusion face to the abandonment of the peace and love values in favor of the old bourgeois way. The album also has two Spanish songs, "Los Hermanos," a milonga by Atahualpa Yupanqui, ode to fraternity and freedom with an implying urge for Latin American union, and "Gracias a la Vida," the old chamamé composed by Violeta Parra and made famous for younger generations (at the time) by Joan Baez; the hit "O Cavaleiro E Os Moinhos," "Um Por Todos," and "Jardins de Infância," all by the duo also discovered by her, João Bosco/Aldir Blanc, delivered as fusion rock; "Fascinação," an old romantic valse that, depending on the subject, can bring one to tears or to dismiss it as corny; "Tatuagem," with a strong melody and lyrics, of a dramatic romanticism, by Chico Buarque and Ruy Guerra, already made famous by Maria Bethânia; and "Quero".

One of Elis Regina's many qualities was her searching for new composer talent. In this album she recorded two songs from one of her findings, Renato Teixeira. Renato earned his living as a jingle writer when this Elis' recording of 'Romaria' launched him to become one of Brazil's better known singers/writers. The song was a hit and quickly became a Brazilian standard.

The other song by Teixeira, however, was unjustly forgotten, having been recorded only by the author (afaik) besides this record. It's 'Sentimental Eu Fico', a fantastic song with amazing lyrics, here receiving no less wonderful arrangement by Cesar Camargo Mariano and, of course, singing by Elis. Elis also picked two songs ('Colagem' and 'Vecchio Novo') by the then young composer Claudio Nucci, who would later become famous as the leader of vocal group 'Boca Livre'. 'A Dama do Apocalipse' by Nathan Marques/Crispim completes the set of novelties, all of them excellent picks.

The other songs, by the then already accomplished composer duos Milton Nascimento/Fernando Brandt, Ivan Lins/Victor Martins and João Bosco/Aldir Blanc are no less impressive, wrapping up the exceptionally strong song set of this album. Elis singing is as strong and heartfelt as ever, with the brilliant, somewhat baroque arrengements and piano by Cesar Camargo Mariano. If something negative could be said about this record, it would be it's overall melancholic spirit, but one that makes it something beautiful and transcendental.

This is an album recorded live during Regina's historic show on July 25, 1977. The tickets were entirely sold out in eight hours, a couple of weeks in advance. Most of these classic songs weren't published until then, and Regina can be imputed with their success. More than that, they became Regina classics, deeply associated with her interpretation: "Cartomante," "Transversal Do Tempo," "Qualquer Dia," and "Romaria," for example. This album's repertoire, with exceptions, is dedicated to several new artists discovered by Regina: Renato Teixeira, João Bosco/Aldir Blanc, Milton Nascimento/Fernando Brant, Belchior, Ivan Lins/Vítor Martins, and several other great composers. The band counts with Regina's second husband César Camargo Mariano (piano/keyboards) and bassist Luizão Maia, along with several other good musicians who fit accordingly into the bill. The highly emotional atmosphere, heard through the intense participation of the audience, was a prognostic that those interpretations were to remain eternal.

Released after Regina's successful show Transversal Do Tempo, the album's concept was to portray the perplexity in the face of Brazil's complexity. Its biggest hit was Milton Nascimento's "Morro Velho," but "Fascinação," "Sinal Fechado," "Deus Lhe Pague," "O Rancho Da Goiabada," "Saudosa Maloca," "Querelas Do Brasil," and "Cartomante" also were successful. Arrangements/piano by César Camargo Mariano.

1 comment:

Hello something went wrong here at google 2 postings of Roots appeared so i deleted one didn't check the next day. You can see from my initial monday night posting i refer to the Leicester glory, i left it that way. I presume you will enjoy more Elis